SIAL Shanghai: Asia's largest food & beverage trade fair

Who comes to SIAL Shanghai?

The buyer community at SIAL Shanghai spans the full food industry value chain. The largest segments are distribution and wholesale, import, export, catering and foodservice, franchises and supermarket chains. Over a third of visitors are outright decision-makers within their organizations, and 70.40% of international attendees hold final purchasing authority or key purchasing influence.

With 98.41% of visitors rating SIAL Shanghai as highly important for their business, and 4 out of 5 attendees confirming they will return for the next edition, the show consistently attracts the most commercially active professionals in the region.

The most sought-after product categories reflect current consumer dynamics in China and across Asia-Pacific. Snack food and healthy snacks lead buyer interest, followed by imported food, convenience food, premium beverages and new-style tea drinks, fresh and frozen meat, pre-prepared food, grains and condiments, and frozen ingredients. GI-certified food, alcoholic beverages, aquatic products and dairy also attract significant purchasing attention.

Match Me: business matchmaking at scale

SIAL Shanghai's Match Me programme is one of the most sophisticated buyer-exhibitor business matchmaking systems in the global food industry. The 2026 edition delivered 13,978 sessions, combining one to one VIP buyer meetings, 4 dedicated theme matchmaking zones and 650 booth-targeted sessions facilitated directly by the SIAL matchmaking team.

Past on-site participants include SPAR, JD.com, Hema Fresh, Yonghui Superstores, Wumart, Aeon, Sam's Club, Walmart, Snack Kingdom, Angliss, Higreen and Capital Outlets, among many others.

For international exhibitors, the programme removes the single biggest challenge of exhibiting in a new market: finding the right room, at the right time, with the right person already sitting across the table.